Most patients turn back to their physician. Yet the truth is:
The U.S. Pain Foundation's Living Well With Chronic Pain – An Educational Guide makes this gap explicit: patients are asked to self-manage without adequate instruction or support. (uspainfoundation.org)
What This Means for Clinicians
How Anodunos Fits In
That means physicians can focus on diagnosis, medical management, and clinical judgment — while knowing their patients are getting the ongoing skills training they need to live better with pain.
Why It Matters
Call to Action
- Few of them were trained in how to coach self-management behaviors.
- Medical curricula still focus on diagnosis + pharmacology, not behavior change science.
- "Just exercise more" or "try to manage your stress" isn't enough to build durable skills.
The U.S. Pain Foundation's Living Well With Chronic Pain – An Educational Guide makes this gap explicit: patients are asked to self-manage without adequate instruction or support. (uspainfoundation.org)
What This Means for Clinicians
- Patients need structured teaching — Self-management isn't intuitive. Without guidance, adherence falls and frustration rises.
- Physicians can't do it all — Their visit lengths are too short, and behavior-change training isn't one of their core competencies.
- Interdisciplinary models work — Health coaches, navigators, PTs, behavioral specialists, and integrative providers can reinforce skills between visits.
How Anodunos Fits In
At Anodunos, we're not trying to provide education for physicians in a holistic approach to chronic pain. Instead, we:
- Train Pain Navigators to deliver structured self-management coaching, pacing, and troubleshooting.
- Equip providers with an integrative framework and communication tools that make it easier to reinforce patient strategies in the clinic.
- Build coordinated networks where physicians aren't alone — but instead supported by a team that aligns with HHS pain management guidelines and whole-person care.
That means physicians can focus on diagnosis, medical management, and clinical judgment — while knowing their patients are getting the ongoing skills training they need to live better with pain.
Why It Matters
- Clinical efficiency: You don't burn visit time re-explaining coping strategies.
- Better outcomes: Patients gain confidence, reduce reliance on crisis care, and use medications more appropriately.
- Professional alignment: Fits squarely with value-based models and payer incentives for reducing unnecessary utilization.
Call to Action
If you're a clinician who feels stuck between telling patients to "self-manage" and watching them struggle actually to do it, you're not alone. We need to build systems that teach and support self-management, rather than just prescribing it.
That's precisely what Anodunos is working to scale. Let's make the guidelines actionable—together.
The Anodunos Method
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